Author: alexandersanger

I paid a visit last week to the Profamilia clinic in Cartagena, Colombia. The waiting rooms were full of women seeking education and clinical services. The clinic offers full sexual and reproductive health care, including GYN surgery, tubals, vasectomies and surgical and medical abortions (85% of women choose medical abortion). They see about 3,000 patients a month. The staff was dedicated, hard working and focused on providing what the clients need.

I met two dozen youth educators, 3 boys and the balance girls – we clearly need more boys in the mix. There were outgoing, ebullient and knowledgable, ready to give answers to teens who need answers.

No, not for the World Cup, but for the vote today in the lower house of its Congress to decriminalize abortion up to 14 weeks gestation. The vote was 129-125. The bill next goes to the Senate. It will be close. We are ready and actively lobbying.

On Jan. 23, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that bans U.S. aid to any health organization in another country that provides, advocates or makes referrals for abortions.

The full impact of the order won’t be felt until September. That’s when the U.S. government fiscal year comes to an end. At that point, every international organization that does not comply with the order will be excluded from U.S. funding, says Marjorie Newman-Williams, president of Marie Stopes International, an organization that provides contraception and safe abortion in dozens of countries.

But health groups that aren’t complying with the policy are already feeling the effects. The U.S. has pulled the plug on funds that had been previously allocated but not yet spent prior to the Trump order. “Marie Stopes can talk about its own sad stories of programs that have had to close,” says Newman-Williams. Its outreach services, which were funded by USAID in countries like Uganda, Kenya, Senegal, Madagascar, Pakistan and Myanmar, have already stopped, she says.

That’s the case for Family Health Options Kenya, Kenya’s oldest provider of sexual and reproductive health services. FHOK disagreed with the terms of the “Mexico City” policy, which has been reinstated by every Republican president since Ronald Reagan first issued it.

In October 2017, $640,000 that was in a four-year pipeline for ongoing work was lost because the funds, which came from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, were discontinued. Since then, $1.56 million more has been lost because FHOK was unable to renew project funds and bid for future U.S. funding, says Amos Simpano, director of clinical services. FHOK says that amounts to nearly 60 percent of the organization’s funding.

On a visit to Washington, D.C., this spring, Melvine Ouyo, an FHOK reproductive health nurse, sat down with NPR to discuss the effects of losing that much funding. One of the organization’s 14 clinics has closed down, and a clinic in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum and where Ouyo works, could be next. FHOK has also ceased outreach services to underprivileged communities, which it estimates has affected more than 76,000 women and young girls to date.

Though abortion is legal under Kenyan law if the health or well-being of the mother is at risk, some pregnant women and girls who now lack access to medical care because of the funding cuts are resorting to unsafe measures out of desperation. They visit “curtain clinics,” she says — secret spaces run by people who aren’t nurses or doctors — or use household items like crochet needles to terminate their pregnancies.

The loss of funding has also jeopardized essential services that are unrelated to abortion — like cancer screening of reproductive organs, treatment for HIV, postnatal care and vaccinations for diseases.

The funding policy — called the “global gag rule” by its critics — is meant to discourage abortion. But a Stanford University study makes the case that restricting family planning funds can lead to more abortions. Researchers analyzed survey data in 20 African countries between 1994 and 2008 and found that rates of induced abortions rose sharply in countries that were most affected by the rule. A report by Population Action International found that when the policy was in effect between 1984 and 1992, “there was no evidence that the policy reduced the incidence of abortion.”

We had to lay off six staff [out of 10] just to be able to sustain the clinic. We also have not been able to acquire any [new] equipment in the past several months because of a lack of funding. We have not improved any of our equipment [such as autoclaving machines used to sterilize equipment]. It means we are still just operating from where we were last year.

What health problems do you see going unaddressed?

Because we have not been able to provide outreach services, which basically serve disadvantaged communities, we cannot provide screening services for HIV and AIDS and be able to initiate treatment for those who test positive, and provide health education [for prevention]. It means that people in these communities will live without any precaution. A child who requires immunization and [whose] parents may not be able to afford transport to facilities [could] get communicable diseases — measles, TB, diphtheria, hepatitis. And if one gets it, they infect another and another in the community.

Who are some of the people that rely on your clinic?

There was a young orphan girl, about 10 years old, who was sleeping at her uncle’s [home] after she lost her parents. And the uncle persistently sexually abused her. And when she got pregnant at 13 years, this is a pregnancy from incest, she would not just carry on the pregnancy. So this girl comes to you suicidal. What do you do as a professional? She had already attempted unsafe abortion. She had taken herbs given [to her] by friends. Her friends referred her to us and she was able to access safe abortion services.

With the funding loss, what is FHOK doing to survive?

We have to put a small fee on the services we are providing. It has caused the clients to shy away from seeking care. At the Kibera clinic, we are charging half a dollar, because it is within the slum and we know the clientele we are dealing with. And still, not all will be able to pay. We feel the pain of not being able to provide those services.

Other countries, like the Netherlands, have started raising funds to help international organizations that are suffering because they did not agree to the terms of the Trump order. The Dutch government created a funding initiative called “She Decides” and has raised about $200 million from governments, foundations and philanthropists. Are you receiving funding from elsewhere?

The main alternative that FHOK started was to start charging the client. We receive a reduced grant [by about $99,000] from the International Planned Parenthood Foundation.

What does it feel like for you right now?

It feels painful knowing that someone would benefit from your education, your passion, your career and you cannot do that. It kills your morale.

How do you cope, knowing that your health clinic isn’t as effective today?

Just like the previous years when we had the global gag order, I still have this hope that I have to hold on, to press on. I am hopeful that someone will hear my cry.

Cecile Richards stepped down today after 12 years as President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

It is a sign of my age that I have known many of her predecessors: giants like Alan Guttmacher and Faye Wattleton, and, dare I say, my grandmother. To be great leader in our movement, and Cecile certainly was one, takes, above all, authenticity. This on top of all the skills required to raise the money, speak the speeches, lobby the lobby-able. You have to inspire, and this takes authenticity. A potential believer, supporter, donor can spot an actor, someone who is putting on an act to get on your good side, to get in your wallet, to get your vote. Cecile spoke from her life’s experiences, much as my grandmother did and Faye Wattleton did. She was the real thing.

I thank her for carrying the torch so boldly and so effectively for so long.

Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Doubles Funding of Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU

Apr 17, 2018

The Center Will Expand Its Toulmin Fellowship to Support Choreographers and Composers Year-round.

The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU (CBA) has received a two-year gift from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation that will more than double its current level of annual support for the Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance, a unique fellowship designed to support the work of women in dance and promote broader equity in the field.

With this gift, the fellowship—formerly known as the Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers—will expand its applicant pool to include both women choreographers and women composers for dance. Additionally, it will support up to four fellows each year, allowing CBA to host Toulmin Fellows year-round.

The Foundation has provided three years of support to date (2015-2018). Past Toulmin Fellows include: Melissa Barak, Claudia Schreier, and current Toulmin Fellow Danielle Agami. Recipients of the 2018 – 2019 Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance will be announced in May.

“In our partnership with The Center for Ballet and the Arts, we have found an ideal incubator for emerging female choreographers to learn, grow, and develop their art,” said Alexander C. Sanger, Trustee at the Foundation. “We are proud to expand the funding of the Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance, giving both choreographers and composers the support needed to take risks, create new work, and collaborate as level actors in a dance landscape where leadership is historically dominated by men.”

The Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance will provide fellows with a weekly stipend of $2,500. Fellows are also offered studio space, an office, access to housing, a project development fund, and the opportunity to be part of a community of artists and scholars with whom they can exchange ideas.

Applications for the 2019-2020 academic year will open in August 2018.

The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University is an international institute for scholars and artists of ballet and its related arts and sciences. It exists to inspire new ideas and new ballets, expanding the way we think about ballet and bringing vitality to its history, practice and performance in the 21st century.

The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation has created a Program for Commissioning Women in the Performing Arts, through which it funds commissions of new works by women in symphonic music, opera, ballet and theater. The Foundation was created by Virginia B. Toulmin, who was passionately devoted to the performing arts and the advancement of women.

Notably, abortion rates are similar in countries where abortion is highly restricted and where it is broadly legal: The abortion rate is 37 per 1,000 women in countries where abortion is prohibited or permitted only to save the life of the pregnant woman, and 34 per 1,000 women in countries where abortion is not restricted as to reason. Legal restrictions do not eliminate abortion. Rather, they increase the likelihood that abortions will be done unsafely, as they compel women to seek clandestine procedures. Indeed, abortion tends to be safer in countries where it is broadly legal and in countries with a high gross national income.

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Alexander C. Sanger, the grandson of Margaret Sanger, who founded the birth control movement over eighty years ago, is currently Chair of the International Planned Parenthood Council.

Mr. Sanger previously served as the President of Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC) and its international arm, The Margaret Sanger Center International (MSCI) for ten years from 1991 - 2000.
Mr. Sanger speaks around the country and the world and has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund.